Wednesday, July 18, 2012

The Short Good-bye...


We had a doctor here in P.T. whose wife had their third child and had to get blood transfusions. She was a public nurse. She developed AIDS, and died within 2 years. She was 39. 
I remember seeing her downtown during her last months and I could see that she was taking it all in, saying goodbye. As she progressed and stayed in bed, the kids would run up to her room every morning and come running back downstairs cheering 'Mom's not dead yet'. They were all under age 5.

It does sound terribly sad, but as it turned out, her husband, our family doctor had gotten back in touch with his college girlfriend who remained his friend during the time he was losing his wife. After his wife died, he and the friend got together, got married after a while, and moved to Oregon. She had three kids also, so the kids had a wonderful woman to be there for them, and a new family.

It was perfect. The wife who died had developed dementia and gave him many months to part from her. He waited a good amount of time before he remarried. 
When my daughter was 4-5 she had a little stuffed penguin which she took with her to an appointment. 
The doc asked her what its name was and she told him 'Randy Jacobs', which is his name.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012


While Jim (my first husband) and I were engaged we went with a friend from work to a Catholic Shrine called Our Lady of the Snows, somewhere outside EStL.
Jim and I had gone there a few times and liked it because it was such a scenic place, interesting looking. He was in the process  of becoming Catholic, so that worked for him also.

After touring the park freely just before dusk (we were the only people there), the three of us were standing at the Angelus Bells pond fantasizing about how the amphitheater stage looked futuristic. I said something about what if a UFO came down and landed there right now.
Our friend said something about a big hand reaching up out of that pond, and we all laughed. We were having simple fun trying to scare ourselves.
The lights were off at the Angelus Bells pond, but on everywhere else around the grounds.

Then I said 'What if these bells started ringing?'
At that moment they did. 
The suddenness and the loudness of those bells ringing five feet away from us startled us, scared us and, as in the movies, we ran screaming to the car. 
Also, as in the movies, where the girl always falls, I slipped on the gravel and fell calling out for them to 'Wait for me!'

Jim looked back, bells still pounding, and looked to the car again, clearly considering his options, but he came back for me.
By then I was on my feet, and we left there quickly.
We all laughed and felt we had just had an amazing adventure.

I had moved out of my mother's house and was staying with Jim and his dad until we were married a couple of months later.
It was a two bedroom house, but the dining room area, between the living room and the kitchen was made into a bedroom, where I slept.

That night, when Jim, his dad, and I were all in our respective beds ready to go to sleep, Jim's large dog (a standard poodle) jumped up and ran barking excitedly to the front door.
No one seemed to be at the door, no one knocked, there were no sounds, but the dog stood facing the door barking furiously.
Then the dog began to back up, still barking as if watching someone come through the door into the living room.
The dog backed all the way through the living room barking. When it reached the room where I was sitting in bed watching, the dog turned around to face the kitchen, as if watching someone walk past him, and he continued to follow that, still barking harshly all the way through my room toward the kitchen.
It looked as if that dog were clearly seeing someone there.
I saw nothing.

From the time the dog began to back away from the front door I could feel a strong energy inside the door, like an energy field. almost like static electricity without the tingles, or shocks. 
As the dog backed through the living room, I could feel that energy field move through the room in front of the dog.
When the dog reached my room and turned around to face the kitchen, I could feel that energy mass move into my room. Needless to say I was terrified, and dumbfounded. It was like a wall of energy that reached from one side of the room to the other.
The energy mass moved through my room, and as it reached the area of my bed, I felt it pass right through me, continuing on the to kitchen.

Once the energy field reached the kitchen, the dog stopped barking, I no longer felt that energy wall. I jumped up and ran screaming into Jim's room and jumped into his bed.
All the time the dog barked Jim was calling out to him to hush, but he didn't come into the room.
I told Jim and his dad what had just happened and they didn't know what to think, though Jim was as uneasy as I was. His dad, a large man, may have been better at concealing his concern, he said nothing.

Later the next day Jim told me he had called one of the Brothers at the Shrine and asked about the lights being out, and the Bells ringing at the Angelus pond the early evening before.
The Brother told Jim he checked the circuits and there was no evidence of a power outage at the Bells showing. 
The Brother also told Jim that if there had been a power outage, the Bells would not have rung, as they are on the same circuit, and timer.
The Brother had no answer for why the lights had been out, or why the Bells rang when they did.

When I fell, as we ran from the Bells, I scraped my ankle, leaving an open abrasion that took a month to heal. Incidentally, the day we went to the Shrine happened to be April 1st (1965).
During the following month, Jim and I noticed with surprise that we seemed to be able to know what the other one was thinking, and we would finish each other's thoughts ourselves, which was fun for us, if perplexing.
The day my ankle healed May 1st, that stopped. Life resumed as normal.

That energy field was a real, and palpable as the keyboard under my fingers. I have not felt anything like that since. 


August 2010

There was a power outage last night at 8:30.
Through the sliding glass doors I was able to see the full sky, which in the rare darkness left by the the Park-and-Ride lights and all other lights being out, including Safeway, gave me a clear view of all the stars one sees in a black sky.
There were some low clouds on the Eastern horizon emitting
occasional flashes of lightning, and it was a bit windy.

I happened to look down and there was an owl sitting on the railing
of my balcony. He was sitting on the corner by the opened door.
Af first I thought it was a hawk, as a couple are frequently seen on the other side of the building, but as I stood at the door, three feet away from the bird, I could see that it was an owl.
As car-headlights would come past, I was able to see spots and lines in the feathers, which ruffled like hair in a breeze.

I stood there, as it sat looking around, for at least fifteen minutes. 
I was excited. 
What a thrill. It is the first time I've seen an owl in person, and up so close.

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